Principal Investigator (PI)
Mohammad Atari
Mohammad Atari is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst. He runs the Culture and Morality Lab (CaM-L ) where his team studies the interplay between culture and moral values. Mohammad uses a diverse array of methodologies, including computational techniques, lab experiments, and fieldwork.
Graduate Students
Aliah Zewail
Aliah Zewail is a second-year PhD student of Social Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, studying under the mentorship of Dr. Atari. She holds a Psychology B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include examining how people express their cultural identities through stories and social interactions via computational and linguistic methodologies.
Fırat Seker
Fırat is a first-year PhD student in the Social Psychology program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studies under the mentorship of Dr. Mohammad Atari. He earned his M.A. in Psychological Sciences from Kadir Has University, Turkey. Fırat is interested in studying the evolution of morality and cooperation through a historical psychological lens. His research is also focused on how cultural and ecological factors interact to shape moral values and decision-making across different societies. His previous work examines the relationship between religiosity, cognitive style, and prosocial behavior, and the determinants of utilitarian decision-making and morally courageous behavior.
Ali Hajian
Ali Hajian is a first-year PhD student in Social Psychology, working under Dr. Mohammad Atari. He received his Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Tehran. He is interested in exploring social psychological phenomena such as prejudice and intergroup relations through a historical and intercultural lens.
Liora Morhayim
Liora Morhayim is a fourth-year PhD student in the Psychology of Peace and Violence program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her B.A. as a double major in Psychology and in International Relations at Brown University in 2019 and M.A. in conflict mediation at the University of Barcelona in 2020. Liora is broadly interested in investigating the behavioral underpinnings of social-political conflicts and finding interventions informed by social psychology to reduce prejudices and improve group relations. She is doing both experimental and applied intervention studies on intergroup contact, specifically focusing on the social categorization and attitude generalization processes.
Aanchal Setia
Aanchal Setia is a fourth-year PhD student of Social Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, studying under the mentorship of Dr. Buju Dasgupta and Dr. Atari. She is interested in the intersection of data science and social psychology. Her research interests include examining how social inequalities influence the relationship between women and women mentors, as well as between women and male mentors, through computational and experimental methodologies.
Hector J. Sosa
Hector J. Sosa is a fourth-year PhD student of Social Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Hector is generally interested in improving educational outcomes for underrepresented/underserved students. Using both experimental and qualitative methods, he is currently exploring the conditions that make a successful individual inspiring for students of color. With the guidance of Dr. Atari, Hector is interested in understanding how culture (i.e., tightness-looseness) is associated with educational outcomes. Hector looks to build on his experience with data science techniques by applying computational methods (i.e., word embeddings) to better understand cultural constructs like norm violations.
Roya Mohammadsadegh
Roya Mohammadsadegh is a second-year PhD student in the Developmental Science Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds an M.A. in Cognitive Science from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Her work within the Neurolearning and Performance Lab under the supervision of Dr. Kwak focuses on studying the interplay between decision-making, sense of agency and artificial intelligence, examining AI’s impact on human decision-making. In the Culture and Morality Lab, she collaborates with Dr. Atari’s team to investigate the role of cultural differences in human interaction with new technology. Her research aims to enhance our grasp of human-AI interaction, underscoring the role of culture in our engagement with technology.
Undergraduate Students
Erica Schultz
Erica Schultz is a third-year studying Psychology and Legal Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has an interest in Forensics, Criminology, and the relationship between Psychology and Law. She is interested in how morality differs across cultures and how that affects the legal and political climate of the United States.